The Enemy Within
by Karina0723
Summary: Things not always go as planned, and in this case all that could've possibly go wrong for the team, has done just so. But amongst all of that there can always be moments that make the team kick back and enjoyed themselves. Nobody knows for how long and honestly they just don't give a f*ck, as long and the women are hot and the beers are ice cold.
1. No Easy Way Out

**No easy way out**

The escape was botched.

Christmas ran out first from the building that was engulfed in fire. The cool breeze clashed with the unbearable heat inside the now decrepit building. The cover had been compromised by the relentless enemy gun fire. Before taking another step he surveyed the grounds and raised his fist when he deemed safe. Close behind him Elena ran, tucking the disk close to her heart. She had to change her beloved knife and guns for hard drives, and random bits of technology scattered about her Kevlar vest. She cursed, under her breath, leaving behind her equipment and not having any weapons herself.

Soon enough an alarm was heard throughout the Russian compound. Both Christmas and Elena saw each other. It was going to be one hell of a run. They kept running as the enemy kept pressing on them. Christmas saw the western checkpoint, the motorcycle was hidden underneath a camouflage cover. He slid right on it and revved the engine. The motorcycle revived under his legs and he could almost kiss Tool for it.

"You gonna jerk off now or are we leaving?"

Elena screamed at Christmas while straddling the motorcycle. The Brit was slammed back to reality. The enemy had target them and opened fire. They barely escaped serious damage.

They were headed to the southern end of the complex, avoiding obstacles and bullets from the enemy. Barely avoiding instant death a few times, Elena's grip on Christmas tightened and she felt a warm liquid enveloping her hand. He had been shot.

Another shot buzzed by them. She looked back just as they were almost to reach the corner of the southern bridge, 5 motorcycles crept out of the building, coming every second closer. She knew what she had to do. She took the disk out of her pocket and put it in Lee's pocket.

Before he could say anything she jumped out of the motorcycle, rolled to the floor and started running to meet the enemy. It was so fast, Christmas barely felt the pressure on his wound alleviating and a weak breeze by the time he had already cleared the bridge.

"The fuck are you doing? That's not how we planned it."

Christmas was annoyed at her and revved up the engine to go back to get her. She only looked back and gave Christmas her biggest smile. She opened her hand to reveal the detonator she had swiped from him and pushed the button. The dynamite underneath the bridge exploded sending a ball of fire that engulfed the whole metal structure. Christmas had little time to cover from the fire and falling debris.

She opened her eyes, stood up from the floor a little disoriented and walked to meet the enemy, never looking back to see the both horrified and annoyed Christmas. The 5 enemy motorcycle circled her like hungry sharks. Calmly and slowly she put her hands to her head and knelt.

A man stood in front of Elena, standing proudly he smiled at her and made a signal. Lee couldn't recognize the man from the debriefing of the mission. One of the riders step out of the motorcycles and hit Elena sending her to the ground, most likely unconscious.

Lee's insides turned and he felt his chest tying itself into a knot. He placed a hand to his chest and then checked his wound. At least he had the package. A cold shiver ran through his spine. This was going to be hell to explain.


	2. Long Night's Sunrise

**Long night's sunrise**

At first they were mere shadows that came into the room and sat beside her. The room, from what little she could see, was just as rundown as the one she had spent her hellish torture. It was barely lit with a lamp by her bedside and some curtains hanging through the dirty window, keeping too much light from penetrating. A big fan, dreadfully slow, circulating over her and her watcher.

Every time she tried to move away or unhook the IV's, a strong hand stopped her, commanding obedience which she was too weak to defy. This mysterious watcher always beside her, checking on her fever and the IV's hooked on her arm. She tried as hard as she could on focusing on his face but all she saw were smudges of dark colors. At that moment, being afraid would've come as second nature after what she had endured. But instead of being afraid, she was numb. No worry swept through her mind, only a disturbing peace, a feeling so alien to her.

Slowly she drifted back into reality, much like waves do to the shore. The lapses of clarity becoming longer and more frequent. She had started making out her surroundings. An IV bag to her left, some black crates with God knows what inside them, piled up to the ceiling and a now empty tattered brown recliner. Slowly she sat on the bed pained by her broken ribs and many bruises. She hardly managed to recognize the face.

"Christmas?"

The Brit stopped cold at his feet. He stopped from pacing up and down the room and just stared at her.

"Good morning, Sunshine."

"Is this a dream?"

"I know, dreamy, but no." Christmas gestured to himself and walked towards Elena. He sat down on the bed and inspected her lack of a fever and her IV's line.

"You're safe and back at Tool's" He stated dryly and matter of factly.

"Christmas, I..."

"Save your breath, rest. I'll tell the guys you're up." His tone hardened restoring his usual severe and reserved self. He stood up from the bed, ran a hand through his head and closed the door behind him.

"I'm glad you're ok too." It was the last thing Elena thought before drifting back to sleep again.


	3. You're Only Bad News

**You're only bad news****  
**  
"Christmas, Elena, do you copy? Where are you? Elena, come in. You're 12 minutes off you're mark. Do you have the package secured?"

Ross stated impatiently into the secured frequency. He looked at Yin, to his right, who was equally exasperated as he was. Silence was never a good omen.

Christmas stumbled upon the desolated hangar, a faint trail of blood close behind him. He killed the engine of the motorcycle died as he started assessing his multiple wounds. A few shots graced his ribs but none his any vital organs, not that the poor accuracy of the guards made the shots any less painful.

He stood before the door clenching his fist with anger, until his knuckles turned white. He knocked bitterly against the metal door. Caesar opened the hangar's door and let Christmas in. As The Brit walked in a puzzle look crept on Caesar's face.

"Yo, where's-"

Lee's gaze met with Caesar's. There was a solemn silence between the two men. The Brit's eyes gleamed with regret and frustration. Caesar smile vanished into nothingness as he slammed the door shut. Before Christmas could even mutter a word he plummeted down to the floor, the fall partly stopped by Caesar's quick reflexes. Christmas reincorporated and shook his head.

"Where's Ross?" Christmas barked.

"He's back by the plane going over some maps, you sure you can make it?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure." Lee was on his feet just as fast as he had swayed the first time.

Christmas walked over to Ross who was submerged in maps and coordinates with the battered plane behind him. A few feet away and barely out of earshot Yin was cramming down some info in his laptop. Ross looked up at Christmas and nodded, acknowledging his presence.

"You guys back? You look like crap, shouldn't Elena check up on that?" Barney gestured to no place in specific assuming Elena would be somewhere in that broken-down sorry excuse of a hangar. Christmas closed his eyes, like he was taking a stabbed to the gut and was trying to fight back the pain.

"That's the thing. I'm the only one whose back" The Brit looked sternly at Ross.

"What?"

"We were surrounded. I couldn't do a damn thing. I-"

Before The Brit could say another thing, the whole hangar went dark and he was out.

First it was a low buzzing noise that grew higher until it became loud engines banging against Christmas head, threatening to bust open his forehead. He opened his eyes and saw the metal ceiling and the dozen of safety harnesses hanging on top of him.

Lee was still dazed when he started fighting against the IV line down his left arm when Toll Road stopped him.

"Easy tiger, welcome back to Earth." Toll Road smiled as Christmas calmed down.

"Hey, is it true about Elena?" Toll Road couldn't fight the urge to know if what Ross and Yang were talking about was true.

Christmas felt like being stabbed as Toll Road accidentally reminded him that the earlier events were true. This wasn't a nightmare induced by the near exhaustion state he was in. This was real and Elena wasn't going to come out and start giving him condescending looks while she stitched him up. He wasn't entirely sure what was worse.

Toll Road easily read The Brit's non-verbal language and quickly realized the severity of the situation.

"I'll go get Ross, he wanted to talk to you."

Forget that, now Christmas was completely sure what the worst thing was. How was he going to explain what happened?

Toll Road walked past Caesar and into the pilot cabin. Soon enough Ross was walking over to Christmas with a worry and uncertainty sketch all over his face.

"How are you feeling?"

Ross sat down right next to Christmas as he sat up while holding his ribs. Caesar and Toll Road couldn't make up the conversation and Yang was flying the plane.

"Peachy."

"That's good. Now, let's get down to business. Is she-"

Ross couldn't quite get around the idea of Elena not making it back, little alone her being dead.

"No, I saw them taking her. But I'm not sure for how long she'll stay alive. Knowing her, she'll act out and piss off the guards or something." Christmas looked away still pissed at both himself and Elena for being in this position.

He damned the second she walked through Tool's doors down to the exact moment where he felt her fingertips trace his wound. He felt disgusted with himself for falling to such a stupid deception. A cunning trick she created to fool him, just to allow her to toy with him. He let his guard down for a split second and these were the consequences.

"Who else knows?"

"Only Caesar."

"We're gonna have to-"

"You fucking piece of shit. How could you? Do you know what those assholes do to girls like Elena?"

A thunderous voice roared from behind on of the plane's landing gear. Gunnar had heard them.

"I'm well aware of that, you fucking junkie! There was nothing I could do!"

"Or you just didn't care and this was your chance? You hated her guts; you saw a chance and took it! I'll fucking break you." In the blink of an eye the tall Swedish launched forward with his trusted knife glistening.

Before Gunnar could get any closer that a few feet Caesar and Toll Road stopped the blonde's killing intent.

"Gunnar, that's it! She was an expendable just like the rest of us; she was part of the team. Fighting between us won't make her any safer and her rescue any easier."

It sank in. It finally sank in. In every single one of their minds and guts, it finally sank in. No matter how much they were willing to fight and curse, she was gone and out of their reach.

A few minutes later the team had landed in a non-descriptive area barely outside a village a few miles west from the delivery point. Every single one of them stood still, until Ross stood up.

"I'm going back. I can't leave her behind. I'm not asking you to come with me and you are free to turn this one down."

"But that wouldn't be necessary." Yang said with both a mixture of disgust and hurt.

"I have to show you something." He reached to his laptop and after hitting on a few keys he turned the screen to the rest of the team.

"After we delivered the package I roamed through my contacts and found a live link to a recognizance satellite feed. These are the coordinates for the fortress Elena was taken."

Yang continued.

"The compound had been bombed by the local government under the impression it was a terrorist base, but the thing is, the government doesn't have this grade of weaponry. This was done by someone else."

A dreadful silence

"This is bullshit. She couldn't have..." Hale said looking out the windows his words trailing off.

"I'm sure she could've found a way to escape. The watermark on the video said it was 20 minutes after Lee reached base. It's not impossible." Yang started going through all the possible scenarios Elena could've come through.

"She was tough. I'm sure she's back at camp asking where the fuck we're at." Gunnar added just as if he was out of himself, still in a state of disbelief. He ran his hands through his blonde hair

"Sure she is, Gunnar, if she was fucking Houdini! She's dead and all because she wouldn't follow orders! Fuck her, why couldn't she just- Fuck!" The Brit's words were filled with regret and frustration that he took it out against the metal door in front of him. He was supposed to cover for her and she was now gone because he was too careless.

Everyone looked away because they too saw themselves. Was there anything they could've done differently? They were all used to this kind of scenarios, especially in their line of work, and they swore they were always ready for this kind of thing.


	4. Are We There Yet?

**Are we there yet?**

Always searching, looking out for a proof of life. They had brought governments tumbling down, fought with small armies twenty times their numbers and yet they couldn't tell if one of them was dead or alive. Not until ten days ago.

A Jane Doe resurfaced, a rumor, in a washed out and barely out of the radar country in Eastern Europe that was trafficking women into the old Soviet Union. Amongst some really bad quality images there was very little space for certainty but enough cracks to revive hope.

He wanted the team to discuss his findings and also he needed an expert's opinion on the contents of the pictures and a course of action. He called the team and they were set to meet at Tool's.

Ross had seen the pictures so much, he could easily spend a lifetime without seeing them again and they'd still be fresh in his memory to recall at any given moment.

A fragile and bony woman figure with long dark hair was seen in the pictures. Her face was never shown but the cigarette burns, the bruises and the swollen ankles were present in all of them. Only one of them provided him enough fuel to revive the search.

The first one to arrive was Christmas, closely followed by Yang, both Caesar and Toll Road seemed to be trailing each other and Gunnar was the last one to arrive with an obvious hangover.

Ross called Yang first into the dark disheveled room he called an office. The rest of the team awaited outside, some catching up to each other, another one practicing his knife throwing and finally another one catching some much needed sleep.

Yang glanced at the screen in front of him. Ross stood up from the chair and let Yang sit in front of the computer.

"I need a date, location and any other relevant information you can get from these pictures."

Yang looked up at Ross with a questioning look that could easily be confused for a smile. Ross had a stern expression on his face; he was fixated on the woman in the photo. The pain she must've gone through, the dried blood on her wrists, the chains tied to her ankles and her long disheveled dark hair.

"Funny."

"It wasn't a joke, Yang."

"You are well aware that an id on this is nearly impossible."

"I know you can manage something."

"It is practically impossible to track down to a secure source and let's not begin with the fact that we're working based on a couple tattoos."

"Not just any old tattoos. These fiery babies were done by yours truly."

Tool casually leaned on the door as both Yang and Ross looked up to him.

"Now, let me get a good hard look." Tool walked in, put his glasses on and slowly began inspecting his presumed artwork.

"Fellas, this is one hell of a shitty picture, but, those birds right there are mine and mine only. No doubt." Tool stood straight and placed his hand on both men shoulders.

"We're going hunting."


	5. Crawling Before Walking

**Walking Before Crawling**

The scene was just the same as earlier, Elena resting, gathering all the strength she could, before going back to the real world to face her demons. Before long, a cool breeze swept over her, the bad memories rushing back to her, all at one.

She jumped out of her slumber with her eyes open, anticipating her hellish torture, but she was still in the same room where she had seen Christmas earlier, only it was darker now. She looked around and she was certain it was the same room from earlier. She felt stronger and less somnolent though, the pain in her ribs and her head were still there.

Elena grabbed her head and closed her eyes and then the realization came to her.

No more chains. She opened her eyes and inspected her wrists. Even though they were heavily bandaged, there were no chains. She felt how all over there were stitches and bandages, her bleeding wounds tended and all of her aches drifting away slowly.

It hadn't been a merciless dream, her mind playing tricks on her, like on so many occasions before. She was actually safe. Or was she? She took a deep breath and gathered as much strength as she could.

"Dream or not, I still don't know my surrounding or whereabouts. Worst case scenario I'm still in Hell and my mind's playing tricks on me. Again." Elena thought determined to stand up and find out where in the world she was at the moment.

Slowly and masterfully Elena unhooked the IV's from her arms and slowly slithered out of the bed. First, the left foot on the floor, then the right, then she slowly shifted her weight and finally she was standing up. Big drops of sweat all over her forehead and her wobbly posture made her think she was burning up a fever but after being held up in that sorry excuse for a cell for who knows how long without being able to move freely could make standing up feel like running a marathon.

Elena grabbed the IV stand next to her and walked to the other side of the room. Now she was certain her head was going to explode and her legs were going to give out any moment now, but she couldn't allow herself to plummet to the floor.

This was it, this was the opportunity to escape, she had anticipated so bitterly for so long. She concentrated on escaping, letting her lungs fill with the cold air of being a free woman while running. She stopped cold in her tracks.

"If I'm breaking out of wherever here is, I need something better to wear than this oversized black t-shirt." Elena looked around but there was nothing but black crates and upon closer inspection all of them were locked with padlocks.

A few minutes later and Elena was already walking without assistance, she almost felt like running, until she heard steps coming her way. A cold shiver ran through her and she felt like all her spirits disappeared, she was cornered in that room and she prepared herself to die the moment that person reached the door. The steps were slow and Elena inhaled and exhaled at the same rhythm.

A knock on the door.

"Are you up?"

Elena eyes lit up as she recognized the voice from the other side of the door.

"Yang? Is that you?" Elena ran up to the door but before she opened the door she assessed the way she looked, she might be a merc but she was still lady. It wasn't honorable to meet him like and this and he knew that, otherwise her would've just opened the door.

"Yes, I am relieved that you are ok. Everyone's waiting for you downstairs; whenever you are ready you are free to come down if you feel like it. Tool already arranged a fresh set of clothing in the bathroom; the door is across the hall. Again I am relieved you are ok, that is all."

Elena placed her hand on the wooden door and after a few seconds, heard how the steps trailed off away from the room. Slowly she opened the door and looked both ways, there was nobody and the door was on the other side of the hallway. She recognized the hallway; she really was at Tool's.

A fire burned inside her. For the first time in a long time she saw her real self in the mirror. Not the pimped out version of herself ready to be sold to the highest bidder. The exuberant makeup, the extravagant hair style and the lavish night gowns shielded her in; they'd never get to the real her. She hid away all that she had been through.

Before her stood a resolved woman, so unlike the thin and fragile heroin addict she had been forced to become. They dosed her against her will and as much as she fought, that venom ran through her veins. A cold shiver ran down her wet spine. How long had it been since her last dose?

At first she didn't want to see herself, but then Elena accepted her new image. An image, that showed all that she went through, and her endurance to survive in spite of it.

Her hair looked like a black oil spill from the top of her head to the middle of her back. Her face had gone under little change other than a new small scar under her left eye that given time would be erased.

It made her wonder. She looked at herself and started to inspect all of her new wounds she had collected. First she inspected a cut under her chin that was now stitched up, all the bruises that made up the new map of her body, the broken ribs that were painfully set up back in place and finally the new contour of her back. A mix of both fear and curiosity fed her, as she turned around to see her back in the mirror, a testament to all the beating she endured. She pulled all of her half dried hair into a messy pony tail with her hand and stared at the mirror. The most striking aspect to her was that both of her phoenixes flew over all the scars. The phoenixes were placed each over her shoulder plates and they had been unscratched by the savage beatings.

A smile crept on her lips and she looked over to the sink that had some women clothing in it. Elena went over the clothing that must've surely at some point had be owned by Tool's many loves and decided on a black tank top, a pair of jeans just her size and a pair of combat boots that were by the door.

She left her, now dried, hair down. Messy curls covered most of the bruises and she almost looked normal. She ran her hand through her hair and then she noticed it.

Elena looked at her arms almost in panic, had anyone else noticed? The bandages were now gone and it looked like she had been asleep for at least a week before today. Almost all of the wounds she remembered were now in different states of healing; the only constant was that all were in later stages of healing. How long would she be able to fight off the urge? Her mind ran through every single scenario but they all ended up with her losing control, hunting after the venom she so fervently loathed.

A strong and imposing knock on the door interrupted her thoughts.


End file.
